Time is of the Essence
by birdieputtmaker
Summary: Rosie is just an average teenage girl. But all that changes when a mysterious man tells her of her destiny to protect the fate of the world. She is thrown into the past into a strange world with people she frankly can't believe are real. Will she succeed?
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

_The wind whipped around her, blowing her hair in circles around her head. She shivered and stumbled forward trying to catch her balance amongst the tall grass that surrounded her legs. As she stared out across the barren field she realized with a start that she had no idea where she was or how she had gotten there. Her head started to spin and she was suddenly assaulted with a strange chill running up her spine. Looking out in the distance she collapsed with a strangled cry as she saw someone appear out of nowhere. Tears seemed to rip themselves from her eyes as the dark figure came upon her. _

_ "Do not be alarmed my dear Rosie," a soothing voice spoke to her. _

_She looked up into his startling sapphire eyes and immediately felt tiny; miniscule. His eyes held ages of experience of a past she couldn't fathom. He held out his hand and she tentatively reached out to grab it as he pulled her to her feet. _

_ "You have a very challenging future, one that I have no doubt you will succeed in. He spoke so softly that Rosie had to strain to make out the words. _

_She looked up at him with confusion etched into her face and he soon elaborated. _

"_The boy with the ebony hair and cobalt eyes must be saved no matter the cost. The whole of existence relies on him and he is in your hands. I have faith in you Rosie, we all do, but you must be wary."_

_Rosie caught the angry flash of his eyes as he continued to speak._

"_Many will try to thwart you and persuade you otherwise, but you must remain vigilant. Do not forget what I have told you."_

_He gave her a small smile and when she blinked he was gone. _

Rosie gasped and sat straight up in her bed reaching frantically for the light. She flipped it on, and was relieved to find herself in her room surrounded by her familiar possessions. Blinking rapidly, she saw the room come into focus and tried hard to control the onslaught of emotions that attacked her mind. What the _hell_ had just happened? She had no idea who the mysterious man from her dream was and more importantly, she had no clue what he was talking about. It had felt so real standing in that field with the wind rushing all around her.

At loss of something better to do, she flipped off her light and lay back down to try to fall asleep. It was useless. Her thoughts would not stray from the strange man with his strange words. An hour later, with a hopeless sigh, she pushed herself up from her bed and resigned herself to the fact that she would be getting no more sleep that night.

'Might as well do something useful.' She thought as she pulled her laptop up from the floor and switched it on.

For the past month her English class had been delving into Arthurian Literature, something she had no interest in whatsoever. She couldn't imagine why they would possibly need to study a fairytale in such detail in 12th grade. They weren't little kids any more. She supposed it would've been fine to study the stylistic genius of the many writers of Arthurian legend, but really, what use was it to her that the great sorcerer Merlin supposedly had a fear a cats? It was just her luck to get stuck with the only teacher who actually cared about this stuff. Mrs. Morgan definitely took it way more seriously than her colleagues.

Done with her inner rant, Rosie opened her document that housed her enormous term paper describing the relationship between Merlin and Arthur, or Merthur as she preferred. She still had a month to complete it, but with the lack of sleep she had been getting recently, she reckoned it could probably be done by the end of the week.

After a solid hour of nonstop typing, Rosie felt herself beginning to doze off. She beamed a lopsided grin at the wall at the thought of Mrs. Morgan watching a student fall asleep to her "revered fable."

With a smile plastered on her face, Rosie pushed her laptop aside and collapsed onto her pillows grateful that she was going to get some sleep after all.

* * *

She woke up to find herself face down in what appeared to be grass although she couldn't see the top of it. With a groan she rolled herself over and picked herself up into a delirious standing position. When her eyes focused she discovered that she was standing in the middle of the same field she had met the dark stranger in.

Taking more care to notice her surroundings this time, she spun around in a circle devouring the environment with her eyes. They fell upon a thick forest to her right and she immediately started walking in that direction, although unsure of why. It's not like she had a particularly strong desire to explore forests that could be crawling with any number of dangerous animals, but for some reason she felt drawn to it. Like she needed something inside of that forest.

And despite the little voice in the back of her head telling her that it probably wasn't the best idea, she continued on until she found herself surrounded my tall green trees and muggy feeling air. She kept up her pace not really caring where she was going, but knowing that she would end up where she needed to be.

Without warning, she felt herself being pushed forward by a pair of small hands and tumbled to the forest ground seconds before she heard the undeniably lethal sound of an arrow whistling past the spot her head had been moments before.

She landed with a crack on a rock that split into her head sending a blinding pain all the way through her body. Trying to remain conscious, her eyes searched for the person who had just saved her life. Connecting with a blob in front of her, her eyes found the concerned face of a gangly boy with dark hair and the bluest eyes she had ever seen.

"I found you," she whispered with a smile before descending into unconsciousness.

The concerned boy's face morphed into confusion for a second before quickly becoming one of concern once more. Using all the medical training that he had soaked up over the years, he did the best he could to clean this strange girl's wound and bandage it with a piece of cloth from his shirt. When this was done he picked the girl up off of the ground and tried his best not to drop her as he clumsily made his way back to the hunting party he had left minutes ago.

"MERLIN!" An agitated voice yelled, and the blue-eyed boy grimaced as he turned to answer the call.

"Sorry Arthur, I got a bit distracted." He turned with a sheepish smile to show the prince the girl that he had discovered.

Arthur rolled his eyes at his idiot manservant before turning his attention to the girl.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Arthur, his five esteemed Knights of Camelot, and even Merlin stared at the damsel lying before them.

She was absolutely stunning, even in unconsciousness. Her emerald dress contrasted with her flawless alabaster skin perfectly, and her cherry lips seemed to radiate warmth and beauty with every breath.

Surrounding her head was a halo of fiery hair that was only marred by the barely noticeable stain of blood trickling from her wound.

Arthur was the first to come out of the trance like stance that the girl somehow held them in, and had to shake his head to regain focus. Briefly inspecting the wound he made an almost instantaneous decision that she needed medical attention.

When he spoke it was with authority and managed to steal the attention of all of the knights away from the girl.

"Right then. We better get her to Gaius, let's go."

Sir Leon and Arthur delicately lifted the maiden and placed her haphazardly on a horse.

"Merlin, you ride behind her and make sure she doesn't fall off." Arthur ordered. "Can you manage that?"

Arthur glanced back at Merlin and rolled his eyes when he found the idiot staring unabashedly at the girl he was supposed to be helping.

One well aimed boot later, and the party was on their way back to Camelot.

Groaning, Rosie blinked open her eyes and tried to sit up while adjusting to the light in the room. Her head was absolutely killing her, and she wondered if she still had any Advil left in her handy hangover jar.

Finally gaining focus she gasped when she realized she wasn't in her room at all, but in a very old fashioned looking room filled with bottles, books, and an unbelievably wretched smell.

Struggling to come to terms with what was going on, she was distracted by a very large crash coming from the far side of the room.

Turning her head quickly, she let out a gasp of pain. Blasted head. She closed her eyes for a couple of seconds to calm her breathing and opened them moments later to a boy dressed in very strange clothes striding towards her.

"Are you alright?" He asked, reaching around her to assess the wound.

"Uh, yeah…" She replied trailing off. He had started changing her bandage.

With sudden clarity she recalled slamming her head into a rock before drifting into blackness. The strange boy in front of her gave her a small smile and stepped back, playing with his hands awkwardly.

Rosie directed her attention to him and suddenly realized she was being rude. It was kind of ironic considering how bizarre the situation was.

"Who are you exactly, and where am I?" She questioned, waiting expectantly for an answer.

Relieved to have something to occupy himself with he grinned and stuck out his hand.

"My names Merlin," Rosie's eyes widened, "And you are in Gaius, the court physicians chambers in Camelot." He finished with a smile although slightly confused by the look of incredulity that had formed on the girl's face.

"Merlin…Camelot…Bloody hell." Rosie was mumbling and looked up at Merlin.

"I'm Rosie." She graced Merlin with a tight-lipped smile before she promptly started slapping her face.

"Hey, hey, hey, none of that now." Merlin reprimanded as he grabbed her hands. He wasn't sure what was going on with the girl, but he wasn't going to let her hurt herself any more.

"Excuse me, can I have my hands back now?" The girl gave him a pointed look. Blushing he released him before muttering something about going to get Arthur ready for the feast now.

Catching Arthur's name, Rosie realized that she probably should have seen it coming. First Merlin (who was quite an attractive boy, what a shock!), then Camelot, of course King Arthur had to fit it somewhere.

Her curiosity overwhelming her, she begged Merlin to let her come with him. Despite his halfhearted attempts to keep her there to rest, she finally convinced him to let her come.

As they made their way up the tower, Rosie contemplated her situation.

Having smashed her head rather, well, smashingly, and waking up to see Merlin again, she came to the conclusion that there was no way that this was a dream. However implausible it may be, she had found herself in the middle of the medieval times walking besides the infamous Merlin. Oh if Mrs. Morgan could see her now.

She wracked her for several minutes to discover how she could have ended up here and finally decided it had something to do with that blasted term paper.

Rosie was pulled out of her thoughts when the reached Arthur's door and Merlin informed her that they had arrived. He strode in and Rosie walked tentatively behind her.

"There you are Merlin. You're late, _again_. God you have to be the worst manservant I've ever had, idiot," a voice came from the far side of the room. Merlin stifled a laugh but Rosie didn't even notice.

Her gaze was fixed on the golden haired god standing across the room. Merlin coughed and Rosie snapped out of it. In a flash she remembered the words that had been said when she entered and without thinking began berating the man who had just turned around.

"That was uncalled for. Merlin here has been attending to me because I had a nasty fall earlier. Not to mention, this _idiot_ saved my life earlier. Maybe he should be knighted for doing such a good deed. And-" Merlin placed a hand on her arm and gave her a look telling her that everything was okay and she didn't need to worry about it.

Slightly calmed down she glanced back at the spluttering royalty that now stood before her.

"Sire," she spoke, bowing slightly with an embarrassed smile.

Arthur regained his composure and apologized for his rude behavior before introducing himself with a kiss to her hand. Rosie introduced herself as well and then assisted Merlin in helping the prince get ready for the feast.

Suddenly Arthur asked Rosie where she was from and what had brought her to Camelot.

Rosie looked at Merlin and opened and closed her mouth several times at loss for what to say. Merlin saw the look on her face and hurriedly answered the question for her.

"Rosie was my best friend in Ealdor," he improvised, "I haven't seen her since I came to Camelot and she came to visit." Arthur nodded his head in understanding and Rosie let out a sigh of relief.

When the time for the feast arrived Rosie excused herself from the boys to go rest despite their protests and made her way back to Gaius' chambers. She really was tired and her head had started pounding. A good night sleep would certainly do her good.

When she reached the door, she heard voices inside. Knowing what she was doing was wrong but not really caring she leaned towards the crack and peered in the room.

An old man with gray hair who she assumed to be Gaius was handing a bottle to the most beautiful woman Rosie had ever seen.

The woman had long curly tendrils of dark hair flowing down her back, a beautifully structured face, and a gorgeous dress. Her face however looked haggard and worn.

"I am truly sorry that you have to experience these nightmares my lady Morgana, I can only hope this sleeping draught will help," the old man said.

With a silent gasp, Rosie realized who this woman was. She pushed open the door and gained the attention of the woman who would aid in the destruction Camelot.


End file.
